Opinion / Why AI is the best way for luxury brands to ‘understand’ millennials
As influential younger consumers increasingly disrupt the status quo of brands, firms must harness AI-based high-end strategies to gain insights so they can connect
This story was originally written by Daniel Langer for Jing Daily
For a recent project I was asked to optimise store traffic for the flagship store of a leading luxury fashion brand in Asia.
Given the exorbitant rent at this prime location and the high cost of running the place (such as personnel, maintenance, decoration, inventory), foot traffic and in-store sales were not high enough to make the flagship store profitable.
There were indications from the store that most visitors and consumers who visited were over 40. In short, the store was lacking in millennials and younger Generation-Z consumers.
This is typical for many luxury and non-luxury brands, so you’re probably familiar with the issue. But what can be done?
The classic approach is to question everything about the store itself – to consider a store redesign, switch out the merchandise, retrain the staff, or other possible options.
The brand had a lot of hypotheses about its “youth traffic” problem, but the management team was unsure about the cause and remedy.
I decided to address this challenge from a different angle: by using artificial intelligence (AI). The objective was to gain fundamental insights about how consumers see the brand instead of merely speculating about what they were thinking.